Auto shops get a break

Deadline to install new car inspection computer systems gets extended

Published 7:26 pm, Monday, December 2, 2013

If you have to get your car inspection done this month, you might encounter some grumbling from your auto mechanic.

Auto service stations were required to buy new vehicle inspection computer systems that cost $1,375 as the Department of Motor Vehicles shifts to a new vendor overseeing the inspection program.

But just over half the 10,000 auto shops in the state have installed the new equipment, forcing the DMV to move the deadline from this past Sunday to the end of the month.

Although DMV officials say that consumers shouldn't have a problem getting their car inspected, at least one local Mavis Discount Tire store was telling customers Monday that they couldn't schedule inspections because of the transition to the new equipment.

DMV spokeswoman Jackie McGinnis said service stations were first notified June 5 that it was switching to a new vendor to oversee its inspection program and that the new computer systems would need to be installed by this past Sunday. The DMV has sent out several reminders and in some cases even visited service stations in person to remind them.

Last week, however, the DMV extended the deadline until Dec. 31 because it has taken longer than expected to transition to the new system, which is operated by a company called Systech International.

"Stations are urged to convert to the new equipment as quickly as possible to avoid any potential disruption in service," McGinnis said.

Systech, which is part of a Swedish company called Opus Group and has an office in Cohoes, won a multiyear, $48 million contract with the state earlier this year to manage the state's vehicle inspection program.

Although they have to pay the up-front costs of the new Systech computer systems, the processing fees that the service stations will pay for each inspection will go down. Under the current system, which is run by a company called Testcom, service stations pay about 80 cents to process an inspection. Under the Systech system, the processing fee will drop to just under 44 cents. In upstate counties, car owners pay $21 for a vehicle safety and emissions inspection, a fee set by the state.

There are 10 million vehicle inspections done in the state annually. McGinnis said that as of Monday, 5,683 service stations had installed the new equipment. The DMV had told service stations that they would have to order the new equipment by Aug. 15 in order to receive it in time for the Dec. 1 deadline.

Lothar Geilen, the president of Systech, which now goes by the name Opus Inspection, said that 9,800 machines had been ordered, with 9,500 delivered. He said some shop owners had not followed the proper steps to connect the machines to the system, but he says the extended deadline should provide more time to take care of them.